The instant specification relates to digital information retrieval in the context of social media.
Search systems typically include spell correction and query suggestion components to refine queries submitted by users, including those submitted by human operators. These components are usually distinct in that they leverage different heuristics and signals, with the latter often relying on, for example, n-grams to build its knowledge base of terms, conventionally implemented as thesauruses and dictionaries. Such n-gram processing are complex and can involve large volumes of data and hence require days or even weeks to complete, only after which can the system's thesauruses and dictionaries be updated.
In operation, the spell correction component corrects spelling errors detected in a submitted query, and the query suggestion component selects one or more synonyms of one or more key terms included in the submitted query. Spelling corrections and synonyms can be suggested to the human operator as she is typing the query. Regardless of whether spell corrections and query suggestions are implemented as the query is being typed or after the entire query has been submitted to the system, alternative queries are generated by the spell correction and query suggestion components and are processed in parallel with the submitted query against one or more search indices, and their results are combined and provided as search results.
With social media, information is more real-time in nature than what typically happens with Web pages on the Internet. Events of popular interest (for example, a compelling Super Bowl commercial or an especially nasty celebrity feud or a goal in a World Cup football match) can have short lives on a social media platform, where social media messages directed at and interest about the event can spike and diminish or even disappear completely within minutes.